I know everyone will find this hard to believe, but Team Chrestman is not perfect. We are fallible, folks. Just like our beloved Sean Payton who thinks it’s a good idea to call double reverses and screen passes on third and long in crucial divisional games, we too have made our mistakes. So yes, we will admit that we followed some questionable medical advice recently and prolonged Kohl’s War on Food by several months. But we forgive, we forget and we move on.
When Kohl got his G-tube earlier this year, we decided to forgo a procedure called a Nissen Fundoplication, which is typically done when patients are given G-tubes. It is when the top part of the stomach – the “fundus” – is wrapped around the lower part of the esophagus. It reinforces the lower esophageal sphincter, which prevents food and stomach bile from coming back up and thereby eliminates vomiting and spitting up – common side effects of feeding via a G-tube. (If you are wondering whether the term “sphincter” as used in the last sentence and in every medical explanation given to Kohl’s parents made Kohl’s dad laugh, the answer is a resounding yes).
Before we got Kohl’s G-tube, we were told that children with neurological impairment can have very bad side effects from Nissen Fundoplication procedures and we were strongly advised against doing one. We accepted that at face value and decided that going through with the G-tube without doing the Nissen was better since if it turned out that Kohl ultimately needed a Nissen, than it would be easier to get one ex post facto than the latter. It was a calculated decision. But it was the wrong one. If we could go back in time, we would have dug a little deeper and gotten a better understanding of what kinds of complications were involved, etc. But alas, we live and we learn.
And so it was that Kohl had his sixth procedure and third hospital stay of his young life this past weekend and got a Nissen Fundoplication as an early Christmas present. All things considered, it was a painless hospital stay. Mom, Dad and Kohl’s BFF Floyd the Frog were with him the whole time.
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| Kohl’s BFF, Floyd the Frog, provides some shade for Kohl’s much-needed siesta. |
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| Floyd continues night watch |
We believe that this will be the last piece of the puzzle. Goodbye, War on Food. You lose.
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